Doing the Right Thing
by deangirl1
Summary: Teenchester story for a prompt on LJ. Dean struggles to help those around him.


**Disclaimer:** This is a transformative work of fiction based on the original creation of E. Kripke. No copyright infringement is intended.

**A/N:** This was based on an LJ prompt. Which I will save for the end cuz it mostly spoils the plot...

Teenchesters. Dean 17, Sam 13

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Dean knew he was in trouble the minute he broke away to clean himself up. His breath caught in his throat and his heart felt like he was being chased by a werewolf. He really hadn't considered the dangers of carrying so many sharp objects in his pockets until he realized that _something_ had pierced the condom... It hadn't been big enough hole to actually tear or be seen when he was putting it on... he was pretty sure he would have noticed... but there was no getting around that it hadn't done its job. That there was too much of a mess on the _outside_ of the condom.

Dean was startled back to the here and now by a warm hand on his back.

"You okay, baby?" came the gentle question.

Dean winced. He should have been the one asking. He knew of the two teens in the car, he was by far the more experienced. Sure, he hadn't done anything that Shannon hadn't insisted she wanted to do, but he saw the hesitation too. It wasn't quite her first time, but Dean was pretty sure it was close.

"I'm fine," Dean said quickly finishing up and pulling his jeans back up. He turned around, leaning in close and capturing the soft lips in the upturned face in a gentle kiss.

"How about you?" Dean eased himself back down and embraced the warm body waiting expectantly for him.

"Mmmmmm. I'm good... that was... really nice," the petite blond hummed into his shoulder, snuggling contentedly against him.

Dean had no intention of sounding the alarm bell. He really liked Shannon. He liked her enough that he hadn't been whining about leaving town. He'd barely argued when his dad told him he was to stay home this weekend instead of going on a hunt. In fact, he liked her enough that he'd actually been doing some of his homework, so she wouldn't think he was completely stupid and so that he didn't spend half his afternoons in detention. And it was just the one time. It was a really tiny leak. Surely their luck couldn't be that bad... there was no reason to make this sweet girl worry over nothing...

Three weeks later, Dean had forgotten the incident entirely. He still liked Shannon, but he was starting to get a bit tired of Dad being gone so much. Sam was being Sam, which meant bitching about Dad being away and bitching about not having enough money to go on some stupid field trip to the state capitol for a week and worrying about moving, even though Dad hadn't said anything about it... Dean's best intentions for doing his homework were slipping. Someone had to get extra cash to top up what they needed. He'd slipped out of town one night to hustle up a bit of cash and ended up in the wrong bar. He'd been lucky to get away with the car and the cash he'd come with. A couple bruises hadn't seemed too bad either. But he'd missed handing in a few assignments and landed in detention. He'd slid in Shannon's estimation, so he was a little surprised when she pressed herself up against him when he went to his locker before class.

"I'm late," she hissed in his ear.

"What? The bell hasn't even rung yet?" Dean raised one eyebrow in puzzlement.

"No. I'm. Late." She clearly enunciated each word.

Dean looked at her blankly.

"LATE! My little friend hasn't been by for his monthly visit." She hissed and squeezed his arm. Hard.

And the penny finally dropped for Dean. And the world crashed down around him.

Dad was going to kill him.

But, to Dean's credit, faced with the terrified look on the face peering up into his, that was the last thought he had about himself for awhile.

"Are you okay? Do you want to go somewhere and talk?" Dean asked gently.

"Of course, I'm not okay. How am I supposed to finish high school? Go to college? What are my parents going to say? My life is ruined," tears sprang alarmingly into the suddenly huge blue eyes.

"Let's just get out of here," Dean suggested, gently taking her elbow.

"No! I can't miss school or risk drawing attention to myself," Shannon insisted.

"Well, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know," Shannon moaned, leaning her forehead against the lockers.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I guess you've done more than enough!...I don't know... I can't think... we'll just have to meet after school to figure this out..." Shannon spared one last look of despair for Dean then turned away to go to her first class just as the bell rang.

Dean knew for sure that he got exactly nothing out of school that day. It was all a blur. They would have to look into the options available for them. Dean was determined to do whatever it took. He would abide by whatever Shannon's wishes were... this was his fault. He'd simply have to man up about it. But he cringed thinking about the disappointment and anger that he could expect from his Dad. And Sammy. Sammy would be furious too. And disappointed.

Dean didn't have the same lunch as Shannon, so he spent it brooding alone on the football bleachers.

Maybe he could take a break from hunting. Convince his Dad to let them stay here. Sam would like that. Dean could get a job. Maybe Shannon could come to live with them. They'd have to have a much nicer place to live though. He'd seen the way she'd looked around their apartment. She wasn't mean about it, but she'd had Dean to her house once when her parents weren't home. He knew they were from different worlds. He didn't have illusions about that. Maybe once the baby was born... Dean sighed. It was already hard just looking after himself and Sam. But this was his responsibility. Lives that he was responsible for.

The school day finally did end. He told Sam to wait for him in the library, and he went to find Shannon. They headed back to the bleachers.

"Have you decided what you want to do?" Dean asked tentatively.

Shannon stared across the field. Her lip trembled and her eyes looked moist, but so far, there were no tears.

"I don't want to have to tell my parents. If I have an abortion, I could maybe arrange it without having to tell them. But I would need money. I might have to go out of state..." a single tear fell then.

"Is that what you want?" Dean asked.

"The only other option is to have it. I could hardly hide that from my parents!" Shannon's eyes flashed.

"It was an accident. We took precautions..."

"They'll never believe that! And how can I raise a child? I want to go to college, and I won't ask my parents to raise it for me! My life is ruined."

"I'd help. I'll do whatever you want me to..."

Shannon snorted.

"Dean. You have barely enough money for you and your brother to have lunch every day. You can't even make it to school on time each day with your homework done. I've seen how you live. I know you don't care about school. That you don't have any real plans. Do you really think you could look after a child?" Shannon scoffed.

Dean flinched at the picture she had of him. Of course she wouldn't want to have a child with him, with a loser. And he couldn't blame her. He couldn't tell her the family secret. Knowing the truth would be no better – then he'd just look like an insane freak... The picture she'd painted was pretty accurate. And he had ruined her life.

"You could give it up for adoption," Dean suggested.

"And then we're back to telling my parents again."

"Are you sure, anyway? Did you get tested?"

"I took one of those home tests..."  
"I heard they weren't very reliable... maybe you should get checked out by a real doc...

"I'll have to eventually... but I'm going to take the weekend to decide what to do. What to tell my parents... or not..." Shannon seemed to deflate again, and Dean reached out to take her in his arms, to offer what comfort he could, even in the wake of her cruel words. He knew they were mostly true. He knew this was his fault.

"What do you want me to do in the meantime?" Dean pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head.

"Can you find out about the a..a...abortion?" Shannon could barely get the word out. "You must know people, right?"

Dean flinched at the implication, but did his best to calm her down.

"Sure. Sure. I can do that..." Dean assured her. They stood together for a long time. When Shannon had finally pulled herself together, they parted. Dean went to the library and collected Sam.

It was a Friday night like so many others. They walked home, Sam chattered on about his day and bitched about Dad being away. If he noticed that Dean was quieter than usual, he didn't say. Dean made some supper while Sam did some homework. They ate in front of the television. Or, at least, Sam ate and Dean pushed his food around the plate. Dean cleaned up and then they both watched some tv. Sam never noticed that his brother was paler than he had been that morning and that he never said a word all evening, until Sam was ready for bed.

"Night Sammy," Dean said quietly when his brother got up to leave the room.

"Night," Sam said. It wasn't unusual for Dean to stay up later, especially when Dad was out of town.

Sam never heard Dean sobbing into the cushions in the living room. He wasn't crying for himself. He wasn't crying for Shannon... He was crying for the child he'd likely never meet...

Saturday, Dean dropped Sam off at the library, promising to return for him in a couple of hours. By the time Dean came back, even Sam had had enough of the library. He was angry enough at having been dumped for the day that he didn't notice that his brother made no attempt at defending himself. And he was even angrier when Dean proceeded to then drop him off at home, muttering about some errand.

"If you get your ass handed to you hustling again or come home drunk, I'm calling Dad!" Sam threatened as Dean got back into the Impala after making sure the apartment was secure for Sam.

"Don't wait up," was Dean's only comment.

Dean spent most of Saturday tracking down leads and talking to various people Shannon would never come into contact with in the normal course of her life. Dean knew some of them from the bars he sometimes frequented. They referred him on to others. By late Saturday night, Dean knew more about getting an abortion than he'd ever wanted to. He knew the risks. He knew the law. He knew who NOT to go to. He knew what it would cost – both in money and in pain.

Dean didn't have a drink until he got back to the apartment. Then he sat in the Impala and drained the bottle he'd bought earlier in the day. It did nothing to numb the ache in his chest. He staggered in at 3am. Luckily, John was still away, and Sam never woke up. He spent another restless night on the couch, and barely moved from it all the next day. He knew he had homework to do, but he couldn't care less about it. He tuned out Sam's nagging about it completely.

There was no question that as a teenager, Sam Winchester was an angry self-involved young man. But there was also no question that on a very deep level he loved his amazing and often amazingly annoying brother. And even Sam noticed a Dean that was too quiet and too still for a protracted period of time. By late Sunday afternoon, Sam knew something was up. He just didn't know what.

When Sam got up on Monday morning, Dean was asleep on the couch. Again.

While Sam got his breakfast ready, Dean managed to stagger into the bathroom. Sam heard the shower go on. Taking pity on his older brother, he put coffee on and had a cup waiting when Dean made it into the kitchen.

"Thanks Sammy," he murmured, giving his brother a half smile that went nowhere near his eyes.

"You okay, Dean?" Sam asked, really looking at his brother.

For all that Dean had laid about on the couch all the previous day, he actually looked like he hadn't slept in a week. He was pale and his eyes had that slightly squinty quality they got when Dean had a headache.

"Are you coming down with something?"

"Dude. Back off. I'm fine."

"Uh-huh. I see that. Did you look in the mirror when you were in the bathroom? Here. Have some breakfast," Sam shoved the cereal box in Dean's direction.

"No. Thanks. Coffee's good." Dean held out a hand, going even paler.

"Dean? Have you even eaten all weekend?" Sam's brow creased as his worry increased.

"Yeah! Course I have... but... um... yeah. My stomach's a bit off... so maybe I do have a bit of a stomach bug or something... Just... I'll be fine."

"Maybe you should stay home..." Sam started to suggest.

"NO! I mean... no... Dad would kill me... you know we're supposed to be under the radar..."

Sam looked at his brother in surprise. Dean not taking an out to skip school? Something was definitely up with that...

"Oookaay then... Maybe we should get a move on... Apparently you don't want to be late..." Sam grabbed his bag after putting his dishes in the sink and headed out the door. Dean was right behind him.

Dean looked for Shannon right away when he got to school. He couldn't find her anywhere. He did eventually run into her best friend.

"Cheryl!" Dean shouted, seeing the brunette at her locker. "Have you seen Shannon yet this morning?"

"No." Dean was pretty sure she knew what was going on by the Arctic reception she gave him. She'd never liked him. More because she was jealous of the time he'd spent with Shannon than out of any real hatred of him, but this was different.

"Do you know when she's going to get here?"

"No." And with that she flounced off.

Dean was forced to go to his first class without seeing Shannon.

It wasn't until lunch that he learned she hadn't come into school.

Halfway through his afternoon history class, Dean had to excuse himself to go throw up. It was a bit anti-climactic because he really hadn't eaten anything since Friday. It didn't mean his stomach didn't hurt though and it felt worse after dry-heaving for 10 minutes.

He thought about dropping by her house after school, but the last people Dean wanted to meet at this point were Shannon's parents. What if she'd already told them? They'd hate him. Well. They'd hate him anyway. Girls' parents always did.

No. He told her she was in charge. He'd wait to hear from her. Maybe she'd call him.

She didn't.

Shannon wasn't in school the next day either. Dean spent part of gym in the washroom that morning. He'd managed to choke down some toast because Sam had threatened to call Bobby. It felt a little better than dry-heaving.

He tried calling Shannon that afternoon when he got home from school. No answer. He left a message. She didn't call back.

Shannon missed the next day of school. After school, Dean drove by her house. Sam was now watching him like a hawk. It didn't look like anyone was home at Shannon's, but John was back when they got back to the apartment.

"You're late," he said as his sons entered the apartment.

"Scenic route," Sam groused.

"Hey, Dad," Dean greeted his father.

"You know you are supposed to come right home, Dean."

"Sorry. How'd the hunt go?"

"Fine. I'm thinking we may pull out of here by the end of the week..."

"Aw Dad!" Sam immediately objected. "I've got a really cool project that's half done. Can't we stay til the end of the month?"

Dean's mouth had gone completely dry. He didn't even hear the rest of the exchange between his brother and father. There was a huge roaring in his ears. He was going to have to tell his father. He couldn't leave. He had a duty to help Shannon. To be there for _his_ child. He walked blindly into the bedroom he shared with Sam and just sat down on the bed. He couldn't think.

Eventually, Sam came in the room. He stopped short at the sight of his pale brother sitting on his bed, staring at a spot on the floor.

"Dean?" he said tentatively.

"Dean?" It was louder but got no response.

Sam moved closer and cautiously gripped his brother's shoulder. Dean finally looked up at him with haunted eyes.

"Dean! What is it? What's bugging you? Are you sick? Do you want me to get Dad?"

"NO! No. Don't. Don't get Dad. I'm fine. It's just... I'm tired. Maybe a bit of the flu... but don't get Dad. It's not that bad," Dean gripped his wrist.

"Okay. Dad sent me in to get you. He wants to go out for dinner. He said he'd think about staying a bit longer..."

"Oh. Good. That's real good, Sammy," Dean sighed in relief at the unexpected reprieve.

John Winchester was far from a stupid man. He would admit to being a bit pre-occupied from time to time, and he would admit that he was tough on his boys and expected a lot of them, but it didn't mean he didn't love them fiercely. So it didn't take long for John to notice something was up with his eldest and that his youngest was worried about his brother.

Dean looked tired. Like he hadn't slept in days. He looked thin and pale. And most damning of all, he wasn't inhaling his dinner. In fact, he was mostly pushing the food around on his plate.

"You okay, kiddo," John asked, catching Dean's eye.

"Yeah. Maybe there's a bit of flu going around school right now," Dean looked guiltily at his plate. Dean would make a hell of a con man some day... as long as his mark wasn't his Dad.

"That so," was all John said. He'd wait it out. Let the boy come to him. He knew Dean wouldn't be able to keep whatever was bothering him to himself indefinitely. Dean knew that John knew that something was up and that's all that it would take. That and some time.

SNSNSNSNSNSNSNSNSN

Dean knew he was going to have to come clean to John. But he couldn't do it before he'd talked to Shannon. He couldn't say anything to his father before he'd honoured his promise to her. He'd managed to keep down what he'd eaten at dinner, even though it tasted like ash in his mouth and felt like broken glass in his stomach. He'd even managed to fall asleep in his own bed, but it was laced with horrific nightmares of baby-ghosts and was far from restful.

He managed to mostly avoid his father by being really late getting out of the shower. Sam's impatient snarking about being late had helped hustle them out of the house.

The first person Dean saw on climbing out of the Impala that morning was Shannon. A smiling Shannon. Laughing and talking with Cheryl and the rest of their little clique.

"Shannon!" Dean called jogging across the parking lot.

The smile fell from her lips when she saw him. She said something he couldn't hear to her friends before turning to him. Whatever she said, they headed into school.

"Are you okay? I was so worried! Where have you been?" Dean burst out.

"Oh. I was sick and then my mother decided we should visit my aunt for a couple of days." Shannon looked anywhere but at Dean.

"Oh. Did...did...did you tell your mother?" Dean finally asked softly.

"Um. About that... turns out, it was a false alarm..." Shannon half laughed nervously.

"What..." Dean could barely hear for the roaring in his ears.

"Yeah... I don't know if it was stress or the flu I had or what, but "my friend" showed up on Saturday..."

"What... why... why didn't you call me? I left messages for you..."

"Oh. I didn't get any messages... maybe my dad erased them? I'm sorry I didn't call... but it's not the same for a guy, right? I just figured I'd tell you when I saw you... I mean it's always the girl's problem, right?" Shannon did really look at him then.

But Dean had done what he always did. He'd thrown the walls up. He'd thrown them high. And all she saw was his blank face.

"Yeah. Ok. Well, no worries then. Guess I'll see you around," and Dean walked away, without a single glance back. He got back in the Impala and drove out of the parking lot.

He drove back to their apartment.

There was no sneaking in to the apartment. John had heard the Impala arrive back.

"Think I have the flu after all. I'm going to back to bed," was all Dean said.

"I think that's likely a good idea, son," was the only comment John had.

John sat back down at the kitchen table with his coffee and papers. Dean slept for most of the day. He got up without prompting and went out to pick Sam up from school. John was cleaning equipment when they got back, pushing and taunting each other as they came in the door. Sam went to do homework and Dean started on dinner. Dean might still have been a bit quieter than normal, but he ate his dinner and gave his brother a hard time.

They'd all watched a movie together and then the brothers had gotten up to head to bed.

"Night, Dad," Sammy said and headed into the bathroom.

"Night," John responded.

"Night, Dad," Dean echoed and started to head for the bathroom.

"Anything you want to talk about, son?" John asked quietly.

"Naw. I'm good," Dean said quietly without looking up from the floor.

"Ok, Dean. But you know you can if you want to."

Dean ducked his head in acknowledgment and slipped quietly into the bedroom.

Whatever it was, the storm had broken. Dean had weathered it, and it was unlikely that John would know anymore about it than that. It wasn't a perfect system but then the Winchesters weren't a perfect family.

Sam noticed the change in Dean too. He thought it had something to do with a girl. His suspicions were confirmed to some extent because he noticed that starting with the next school they went to, Dean stopped dating the girls he went to high school with. Not that that was much of an issue because Dean stopped going to high school not long after that too...

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**A/N 2:** So the prompt was Dean gets a pregnancy scare...

This is the first thing I've written in what seems like forever, so I hope it isn't complete trash. I'm trying to be much better about answering reviews... so if you leave one, I will do my utmost to reply asap...


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